The present invention relates to the handling of a substrate wafer in the manufacture of an integrated circuit. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for controllably discharging an electrical charge remaining on a substrate in a plasma processing chamber during wafer processing.
Substrates, such as semiconductor substrates or glass substrates, are typically processed using plasma processing chambers to perform various process steps during the manufacture of the resultant devices, e.g., integrated circuits or flat panel displays. These plasma-enhanced semiconductor processes are well known to those skilled in the art. An important aspect of this manufacturing process is the handling of the substrate wafer during its overall processing. Typically, the handling and transport of the wafer from one particular process to another is highly automated. As is known in the art, one of the steps that is typically automated is the removal of the wafer from a plasma processing chamber after the processing of the wafer within the chamber. Before removal of the wafer from the plasma processing chamber can occur, the wafer must first be released from the chuck that secures it during plasma processing.
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for dechucking a semiconductor wafer from an electrostatic chuck.